Target Dog Plush Toy

This is a white plush toy dog represents an English Bull Terrier named Arielle. Arielle quickly became popular among Target customers when introduced in 1999 by the Target Corporation in their advertising campaigns. The dog has a red bullseye, the Target logo, circling one of its eyes and has a red collar and red ears.

In 1902, George Draper Dayton purchased the Reuben Simon Goodfellow Company and started the Dayton Dry Goods Company, changing the name in 1911 to the Dayton Company. By the 1920s, he had a built a multi-million dollar business. In the 1960s, a senior executive for the company started developing the concept of an upscale discount retailer, which would later be named “Target.” The first Target store opened in 1962 in Roseville, Minnesota. Four stores opened that year and the company posted losses for the first few years. By 1965, the stores started turning a profit and ushered in an era of expansion of the Target concept. As of 2014, Target stores can be found in 49 states as well as Canada with Vermont being the lone holdout.

Spokes characters became the face of national brands, beginning in the 1890s. By the 20th century, they pitched all kinds of products and asked consumers to buy based on emotion. Manufacturers and advertisers created characters to give products friendly faces, connect with consumers through humor, reach younger audiences, and build brand loyalty. Many of these characters became so popular that the parent companies gave them as premiums and made them into licensed products. A few even got their own comic strips, games, and, later, television shows.